We have just played 11 school concerts with IKI, and we’ll continue the tour next week! How lucky it feels to play again! 🙂
School concerts with IKI
Another great review for KAHINA Orchestra!
Værket Kahina er inspireret og navngivet efter den arabiske kriger-dronning, Kahina, et navn der også betyder “sandsigerske” og “heks”. Således vil dette værk være en hyldest til Kahinas magiske kræfter og kvaliteter ved at oversætte dem til musik. Lige så vil modsætningerne dominans/modstand, mandlig/kvindelig og profan/sekulær være genstand for Pontoppidan og Sulkunens kompositoriske undersøgelser og improvisationer med Kahina Orchestra: 10 hverdagskrigere.
På finsk betyder 'Kahina' rusten eller hvinende lyd, der appellerer til de to komponisters hver især elektro-akustiske praksisser, hvor arbejdet med lyd baseres på en helt særlig opmærksomhed over for detaljen.
Sulkunen og Pontoppidans individuelle praksisser er kendetegnede ved at udforske stemmens mange facetter og virkemidler i gennem maskiner som modular synthesizere, loop-pedaler og effektpedaler. Kompositionen til Kahina Orchestra vil være karakteristisk ved ikke at benytte sig af disse vanlige elektroniske hjælpemidler. I stedet vil komponisterne benytte stemmer og instrumenters naturlige effekt og funktion med kompositionsformer, som Sulkunen og Pontoppidan har udviklet igennem maskiner.
Kompositionen vil tage lytteren på en vibrerende rejse gennem musikernes individuelle udfoldelses-spektrum, hvorfor soloer vil boble ind og ud af det fælles værk.
Alt i alt vil værket af Sulkunen og Pontoppidan med Kahina Orchestra tage publikum med på en intim udforskning af musikalsk råstof, der lader musikere og lyttere flyde sammen til én organisme i det levende soundscape.
I februar 2020 havde værket sin debut på Klub Primi under Vinterjazz og blev anmeldt bade i Politiken med fem hjerter og en strålende anmeldelse i SaltPeanuts.
”Jeg tog mig selv i at svaje fra side til side, forført af det smukke lydbillede, mens koret messede, og hårene rejste sig på mine arme…. Infernalsk eksplosion af lyd”. David A.Dyrholm Nielsen/ POLITIKEN ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
“Dette er et verk som snarest bør finne veien ut til de store massene ute i Norden og Europa, for en bedre kobling mellom et vokalensemble og instrumentalister, skal man lete lenge etter. “ Jan Granlie/ SALT PEANUTS
Orkesteret er fornyligt sammensat af stærke kvindelige profiler inden for improvisationsmusik med ønsket om i fremtiden at løfte genren til nye højder.
Concert review – Kahina
An evening with three concerts at klub Primi/ H15. The first set was an acoustic duo with me + Randi, the second, was a concert with IKI and the third concert was a new piece for a band called KAHINA that was composed by me and Randi Pontoppidan.
Vinterjazz …
New album in the making!
Started recording n my next album!! Such a joy to work with this crew! Strings and horns and drums.. and also some voice and electronics...;) To be continued....
Enjoyed playing for you.
Japan tour
It’s so great to be back in Japan!I recorded parts of my solo album here, and now playing a tour with this project feels like some circles are closing. (While some new ones are opening!) A challenge facing every contemporary artist is to constantly be able to push the status quo that is either associated with their own work or that is accepted as the cultural norm. Renewing oneself is the task every artist should, in my opinion, take seriously. I took the chance in this project to reach to the unknown, posing questions instead of finding all the answers. As a parallel to the task of asking questions as a means of renewal, I have used texts - that are in Zen practice known as Kōans - as materials and a source of inspiration. A Kōan is a paradoxical anecdote or riddle without a solution, used in Zen Buddhism to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning and provoke enlightenment. Voice belongs to everyone and everyone has access to his or her own voice. Voice is inseparable from the body. The body cannot work without the mind and mind cannot work without the body. We use our voices and bodies as the most natural way to connect with each other. The human voice has a special status among the different ways of producing sound: it is also used as the primary means of communication through language. Our bodies produce small granules of resonances, microtextures, phonemes, that together form larger entities, syllables, words, and sentences. This collective outwards resonance connects our bodies to collectives and societies. Voice is private in the way that we may not separate it from the person. Voice is always both private and public. The close collaboration with the visuals is finding new ways of realizing the concerts as well. And it feels great to get The visuals to follow the musical resonances and the idea of microtextures, fragments, and layers. We are developing our co-operation constantly and every concert is a unique experience where the location is also part of the outcome. After Japan, we go back to my roots... Finland. There is a great festival We Jazz where we play on the 4th of December! TOUR SCHEDULE: 21/11 20000 den-atsu, Tokyo 23/11 Otooto, Tokyo 24/11 Yellow Vision, Tokyo 25/11 Environment Øg, Osaka 26/11 Big Apple, Kobe 27/11 Socrates, Kyoto 4/12 We Jazz Festival, Helsinki
IKI’s album ‘Oracle’ nominated for Danish Music Awards!
We are so happy to be nominated in two categories for Danish Music Awards! 'The vocal album of the year 2018' and 'A Special Release of the Year 2018'. We are looking forward to 12th of November at Bremen Theater! LINK: Nominees for DMA
Review of KOAN on Swedish LIRA magazine!
"A very fascinating album from an artist who dares to take the step far beyond the established." Read the full review: HERE
Great reviews for ‘Koan’
So glad that the album has been so well received! Looking forward to the next concert at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival on the 11th July! kl 20:00 at Literaturhaus!LINK“Traditional melody singing is rare, the voice is more like an element from which the multilayered colourful and often dramatic whole. … again the name of Johanna Sulkunen is a guarantee for attractiveness and high quality. “ Pentti Ronkainen, Suomijazz "Johanna Sulkunen har lavet et album, der er gådefuldt og mystisk. Der er en dragende stemning, hvor Sulkunen formår at fange os ind som lyttere. Ude fra set er det måske bare en omgang avantgardistisk vokaleksperimenteren. Bruger du tiden på projektet og kommer ind i det, så er det her, der sker noget. Et “noget” der ikke kan eller vil eller skal forklares." Niels Overgård. Jazznyt “ Her new found language and manipulated voice are used as a provocative Kōan. Forcing the listener to adopt a fresh, a deep listening-meditative approach, sometimes even dream state of mind to language and voices.” Eyal Hareuveni. Salt Peanuts. “Koan that is recorded partly in Japan, Sulkunen has moved far from her excellent previous two albums... Koan invites the listener to be also a questioner and especially to question a way how to listen." Harri Uusitorppa. Helsingin Sanomat.